But space for the implementation and spread of ideas hasn't always flourished and there is much that can be learned from those working in challenging circumstances in developing countries.

As I junior doctor, I recently participated in a 10-day programme in Sierra Leone with the Better Lives Foundation, a charity that runs three medical camps a year in a small purpose built hospital in Yonibana, 88 miles from the capital, Freetown.

The experience showed the innovative approach and enthusiasm with which healthcare workers were solving problems around providing medical care, and what it could teach those in the NHS about how to harness the medical workforce to help to improve services in difficult times.

The premise "equal access for equal medical need" is a distant reality in developing countries – the World Health Organisation estimates that 70% of people in developing countries don't have access to basic health services.

Healthcare professionals working in these environments are up against familiar problems; limited resources, time constraints and organisational challenges on a far greater scale.

Sierra Leone is one of the poorest African countries in terms of infrastructure; devastated by a 10-year civil war that finished a decade ago, electricity is scarce and there is virtually no clean water – this year nearly 300 people died in the worst cholera outbreak in the country's recent history. Life expectancy stands at a shocking 42 years and more than 80% of medical care is provided by outside agencies.

Needless to say with funding so short there were no service improvement toolkits or innovation councils. Instead, I witnessed a local healthcare team working to find pragmatic approaches to shortages that enabled them to provide medical care that met our own standards.

Among ideas put into practice were water bottles used as spacers – the chamber between an inhaler canister and patient's mouth which increases the amount of medicine delivered to the right place – for children suffering from asthma attacks and a satisfactory post-operative support system made out of old crepe bandages.

Group consent classes were also taken to save precious operating time and basic triaging systems were conducted by non-medical professionals to allow expertise to be focused elsewhere.

It is the way the healthcare team confronted problems, not the solutions themselves, that is of particular interest because ideas seemed to flourish.

None of us from the UK felt that we should compromise our UK standards just because we were in a developing country. We needed to operate as we would at home or not operate at all, and with this as our goal we found a way around each of our problems.

Finding life-saving solutions to problems, watching them implemented to improve the life of another and seeing the patient's appreciation is central to why healthcare workers choose the career they do.

These incentives give healthcare professionals the motivation to work together in often emotionally demanding situations – in the medical camp in Sierra Leone this was happening but with far fewer resources.

Seeing an idea improve someone's quality of life encourages healthcare workers to go beyond the call of duty and makes them feel part of a dynamic service which can meet demand by improving productivity.

In the UK, there is much to still do to innovate and foster an atmosphere for innovation. While the above drivers for motivation are arguably unrivalled in the NHS, healthcare workers can still find themselves frustrated by the "system" and sometimes unappreciative patients.

Patients on the other hand can be equally frustrated by the service they receive. Often staff can see solutions but are unmotivated or unable to help make changes.

If we want to improve staff productivity and make services more efficient we need to harness the spirit of the healthcare worker to contribute ideas and put those into practice, which I saw happening at the Sierra Leone medical camp.

Get rid of the red tape and institutional barriers and make change easier to bring about. Allow those involved to experience the effects on their patients lives, give them a sense of appreciation and the workforce will respond.

Elizabeth Tuckey is a qualified doctor and has worked in two of London's top teaching hospitals.